In 2002, the new face of “Gangsta Rap” was born in the form of Jayceon Terrell Taylor aka The Game.
Signed by “Aftermath Entertainment” founder and executive producer Dr. Dre in 2003, after acquiring The Game’s mixtape, Game caught many people’s interest. Fueled by drugs and gang violence, Game’s debut album “The Documentary,” debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
After altercations with label-mate 50 Cent about who wrote the lyrics for “The Documentary,” Game left Aftermath records.
After two years of hard work, Game’s most recent studio album “The R.E.D. Album” was released
Aug. 23.
It debuted at number one on the top Billboard 200, with 98,000 copies sold in the first week. That was the lowest turnout in the history of his music career, but there could be several reason for that.
The album lacks creativity. Being credited as being the driving force of bringing the West Coast Rap industry back, Game does no good for the West with this album. Of the 21 album tracks, only about three are worth a mention.
The song, “Red Nation” features Lil Wayne rapping alongside Game with samples from the nightclub hit, “Kernkraft 400.” Aside from taking the beats from a hit song, “Red Nation” is just alright. Throughout the album, it seems as if Game is trying to sell the “gangsta” image in order to sell more CDs.
“My nostalgia is one hundred percent Compton and zero percent snitch,” Game raps in the song, “Ricky.” This sort of thing is to be expected from a rapper that seems to have stolen another rapper’s image. The similarities between deceased rapper Tupac Shakur (aka 2pac, aka Makaveli) and Game are painfully similar. Game openly acts like Tupac with his attitude and mannerisms. The only difference is, Game has sold more than 4.3 million albums worldwide, while Tupac has sold more than 75 million.
Without Dre to produce him, this album struggles to see the light of day. In the end, it’s all hype with no delivery. This album does contain explicit material key tracks to include “Red Nation” and “Ricky.”